national treasury for national purposes--neither squandering it on works local in their character, nor dividing it with a prodigal hand among the states in unequal and unjust proportions, in the vain hope of buying the great states to support a particular aspirant to the presidency, at the expense and even pauperism of the small states. It will so levy taxes that each state, and every section of each state, shall bear equally, as near as may be, the burthens of government. It will foster all our various interests, agricultural, commercial, mechanical, manufactures, professional, &c., but it will protect no one at the expense of any one, or all the rest. It will protect our soil from the dishonor of foreign pillage or invasion, and it will, if need be, with all the energies of this mighty nation, protect our glorious flag from the dishonor of being rudely touched by the insolent myrmidons of Great Britain. It will demand for itself that respect and honor from the other nations of the earth, to which a country, boasting of seventeen millions of freemen, is justly entitled--and I trust in God we never shall again consent to treat with Great Britain or any other nation for soil which is unquestionably our own, and purchase a dishonorable peace by the surrender of our territory. "The honor and independence of my country are the gods of my idolatry," and if war is ever to be averted, at the expense of these, then I say, let it come, let it come.

On the subject of our state affairs, I am more particularly called upon to address you. The question of the Union Bank bonds, and their payment, is the first in point of magnitude, and this I will first consider. The legislature, at its session in January, 1841, resolved that the state would pay this debt-from this decision an appeal was taken to the people, and in November, 1841, after months of patient investigation, that tribunal pronounced its judgment against the bonds. I supposed that an intelligent people knew what they were about, and that when they spoke they meant what they said; but other gentlemen think differently; and the people, in the approaching canvass, are to be invoked to reverse the solemn decision pronounced by them in 1841. Will they do it? is a question which awakens inquiries at once vital to the Constitution and to the future prosperity of the state.

I believe that the pretended bonds, issued on account of the Mississippi Union Bank, find no sanction in the Constitution, but that they were issued in violation of that sacred instrument, which every good citizen in his heart is sworn to support, and that on this account, if for no other reason, there never did exist any sort of obligation, moral or constitutional, on the part of the state, to pay these bonds, or any part of them.

I believe that the bonds were not sold in conformity to the pretended law under which they issued, and I am of opinion that an undertaking to pay them would be to sanction a most dangerous infraction of the Constitution, and to lay the foundation for the final ruin and bankruptcy of the state. Be not deceived, fellow-citizens, by those who tell you that this vast debt, with all its accumulating interest, will be paid without resort to taxation. As certain as that there is a God, if any payment is ever made, it will be from the hard earnings of our people. You will be told that the Union Bank will be put in liquidation for the payment of this debt: believe me, fellow-citizens, the chief assets of that

concern have already been liquidated, and the little that remains is fast evaporating under the genial influence which surrounds it.

No one at all conversant with the affairs of the Union Bank, believes it competent to pay the interest on the debt alone, to say nothing of the principal. But so far as it will pay, I am not only willing, but anxious, to see it applied. This being done, I am opposed to any payment by taxation-and I shall continue to resist any acknowledgment of the debt or promises to pay the balance that may be due after exhausting the assets of the bank. Such an acknowledgment and promise will impose an obligation on the people to submit to taxation, from which there will be no escape; and those who vote directly or indirectly for the assumption of the debt, ought to know the consequences which are to follow, and be prepared to meet them. No one of my competitors takes the lead of me in wishing to see the assets of the bank turned over to the bond holders, but they are both for taxation to pay the balance that may be due after this is done, and I am opposed to it—and this is the chief difference between us.

On the subject of the Planters' Bank bonds, I have only a word to say. They ought to be paid, and it seems to be conceded, on all hands, that the state has ample means for the payment of these bonds, without any resort to increased taxation. These means I am strongly in favor of seeing applied to the payment of the debt as speedily as possible.

I think the revenue laws might be so amended as to render taxes more equal than they now are, and at the same time augment in some degree the receipts into the treasury. I will sanction any measure intended in good faith to effect these objects, but I will, in the event of my election, resist any increase of taxes, having for its object the immediate or ultimate payment of the bonds, unless there should be a clear and unequivocal demonstration of popular opinion in favor of it—and I have not the remotest idea I shall ever see any such demonstration.

The annual expenses of the state government may, in my opinion, be reduced by wise legislation at least fifty thousand dollars below what they now are. To effect this, the number of circuit judges and district attorneys ought to be reduced. There should be but one session of the legislature in two years, and the state ought to have a day in court, fixed by law, so that in all cases in which it is interested, the witnesses might be in attendance at the proper hour, instead of attending, as they now do, in some cases, from day to day, for an entire term, at vast expense to the state.

It is worthy of the deepest consideration, by the people of the state, whether there might not be a salutary reform in the penitentiary system. At present the labor of the convicts is so employed as to come in direct competition with a large and meritorious class of our citizens. It certainly ought not to be the policy of the state so to cheapen the price of the mechanics' labor as virtually to drive them from their trades. Besides, it cannot be otherwise than revolting to the sensibility of honest mechanics to have from ten to fifty convicts discharged from the penitentiary annually, with the same trade as themselves, to become their rivals for employment. It is calculated, too, to bring discredit on that entire class of our population, since no one will be able to tell, after a few years, whether a mechanic, presenting himself where he is unknown,

has learned his trade in the penitentiary or as an apprentice to some honorable member of the trade. I presume that no one thinks that the penitentiary is a proper place to educate lawyers and doctors?

I think this state ought at least to make an experiment on the manufacturing of rope and cotton bagging, from coarse cotton, with the view of converting the entire labor of the convicts to the fabrication of those articles. If the experiment succeeds, and there can be no doubt of it, it will open a new market for our refuse cotton, and save to the state annually many thousand dollars, now paid away for bagging and rope, and at the same time be the means of protecting a class of our citizens from wrong and injustice, than whom there is none more deserving of public consideration.

The subject of education is one which has already been too long overlooked in this state. The seminary fund has been strangely neglected. If I should be elected, it will be an object with me from the day of my installation, to procure the application of this fund to the subject for which it was intended. If the state is ever to have a seminary of learning established on liberal and enlightened principles, there can never be a better time than the present. The best service this generation can render those who come after us, is to bequeath to them schools, academies, and colleges. In addition to the seminary, I should be pleased to see a well regulated system of free schools established, and if we are to be taxed for any other purpose than an economical support of government, I greatly prefer that it shall be for the establishment of schools, in which every poor white child in the country may secure free of charge, the advantages of a liberal education. The history of New England and her enlightened population, is a most striking commentary on the advantages of the free school system.

I am opposed, for many reasons, to seeing the five hundred thousand acres of land lately given to the state, by the United States, converted to any other purpose than that contemplated by the donor, to wit:-The erection of levées on the Mississippi, the clearing of other navigable rivers, and the improvement of our market roads. These are great objects, and ought not to be abandoned, now that we have the means of carrying them out, but if the faith of the state is to be violated by a failure or refusal to carry out the terms of the contract with the federal government, in regard to this land, let us not add to the act of bad faith the folly of giving (as some gentlemen propose) the land to foreigners in payment of debts which we never owed, but let us apply it to purposes of education. In this way we may do something of lasting service to the country-something of service to this generation-something for which posterity will bless us. It is said that the next or succeeding generation will pay "the bonds" if we do not. Let us give them the means of education, so that they may at least understand their rights, before they undertake to pay bonds which their fathers declared were unconstitutional and void.

I am for strict justice in the collection of taxes, rigid economy in the use of the public money, and a constant watch over all receiving and disbursing officers. Some officers will be faithful without watching, but experience has shown that to make all faithful, no one should be allowed. an opportunity to abuse his trust, without certainty of detection and

punishment. The certainty of punishment will alone deter malefactors. from the commission of crime on this account the pardoning power should never be exercised by the executive, except in extreme cases. The court and jury, who try the accused, are the proper persons to pass upon the law and the facts of his case, and after conviction, punishment should seldom be arrested by executive clemency. Perhaps the only safe rule would be to pardon only when the discovery of new facts renders it extremely probable that a different result would have followed if they had been known before the trial.

Every act of the legislature, which comes in conflict with the clearly defined constitutional opinions of the executive, ought to be met by a veto, but all doubts should be solved in favor of the constitutionality of legislative action-and I can scarcely conceive a case where the exercise of the veto power could be justified on the ground of mere inexpediency. The representatives of the people are, or ought to be, the best judges on subjects of this kind.

I have undertaken to give you a brief outline of my opinions, without attempting an argument to sustain them. These I have reserved for the stump, where I confidently anticipate meeting many of my fellow-citizens before the election. The only earnest which I can offer, that I will govern myself according to the line here chalked out, is the pledges given by me in former times and which I am not conscious of ever having forfeited. In conclusion, fellow citizens, I have only to remark that if you elect me, my time and talents shall be assiduously devoted to the public service. I will discharge my duty honestly at least, and with a sincere desire to promote my country's interest. Happy if I should be enabled to give satisfaction to those who elect me, and doubly so, if in all things I can succeed in sustaining the majesty of the Constitution

and laws.

Your fellow citizen,

ALBERT G. BROWN.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS,

DELIVERED JANUARY 10, 1844, BEFORE A JOINT MEETING OF THE TWO HOUSES OF THE MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE.

FELLOW-CITIZENS: The people of the state having elected me to the office of governor, I appear before you for the purpose of taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution, preparatory to entering on the responsible duties assigned me by the laws of the land. In doing so, I will conform to an ancient custom, rendered obligatory by the example of others, and submit to the country an outline of my views, and of the principles which are to govern me in my official conduct.

It shall ever be my purpose to act completely within the powers delegated to the executive. I will avoid all encroachments upon the other separate departments of government; and believing that the pros

perity of the country demands it, I will resist, at all times, the slightest invasion of the rights and powers of the department under my control. The preservation of the Constitution, and the enduring interests of the citizen, demand that the lines which divide the three great departments of government, should be strictly observed. In my efforts to enforce their observance, and in all my exertions to preserve unimpaired the great and essential principles of free government, I anticipate the united support of the whole country. For whatever dissensions may exist among ourselves, and however heated our feelings may become in a political struggle, when the contest is over, and the result known, all of us bow with becoming respect, to the will of a majority; and the defeated, no less than the successful party, feel a laudable anxiety to see the government administered with justice, and with scrupulous fidelity to the Constitution.

In governments like ours, where the people rule with no other limitation to their powers, than those imposed by a written constitution, we cannot too often recur to that instrument, nor avoid with too much care, any infraction of its sacred provisions. The people, when correctly advised, will always do right. Having no motive to err, and the strongest possible incentive to act with justice and fidelity, their unbiassed opinions may always be trusted. But from a great variety of causes, peculiar to popular governments, there is danger that majorities will sometimes be led into excesses. The limitations to their powers imposed by the Constitution are, on such occasions, the only safeguard to the rights of the minority.

If these limitations be removed, no matter whether by the consent of the weak, or the unbridled will of the strong, the minority will sooner or later become the mere serfs of the majority, and our government, now free and happy, affording protection to us all, must gradually degenerate into the worst of tyrannies,-a tyranny knowing no law but the will of a licentious majority-affording no protection save that which the powerful may deign to give.

We are admonished by considerations such as these, to refer continually to the instrument itself, and to invoke its silent but potent aid in maintenance of our rights. However much we may differ as to one construction of the Constitution; in whatever light we may regard certain rights claimed by one party, and denied by another, we must all insist upon carrying out its positive commands, and obey with fidelity, its no less positive prohibitions. That temptation may sometimes be thrown in our way-that we may be assailed in the faithful discharge of our duty by the ignorant or vicious, is not to be denied. But shall we, therefore, be less faithful to our Constitution, or ought we not rather to guard it with a more vestal care?

Let us make all needful sacrifices to secure the good opinion of others. We may enlighten the ignorant, and remonstrate with such as knowingly do us wrong; but sooner let us abandon our hearths and our firesides, than suffer the slightest infraction of this palladium of our liberties. I have been led into these reflections, by the too common expression that although the Constitution was manifestly violated in the issuance of the Union Bank bonds, yet, inasmuch as a majority of the people approved it at the time, therefore the whole people must submit to taxation to pay